Christopher Nwagboso

User focused Surveillance Systems Integration for Intelligent Transport Systems

The continued increase in the traffic density within the European road network has necessitated the urge to combat this deterioration in traffic congestion through effective traffic management. Also pressures coming from our desire for enhanced safety, security and better air quality within the traffic network has alerted various agencies around the world to recognise the needs for advanced sensor technologies based on integrated surveillance systems.

Time compression design with decision support for intelligent transport systems deployment

The time-to-market of a product is related to the time used in the design process of the product. This is particularly important in fast developing areas of intelligent transport systems (ITS) and products. More powerful design toolkits using advanced computers and software design are helping to shorten time-to-market with improved ITS products. The key to achieving these improvements is a methodology called Time Compressed Product Design And Optimisation (TOPDO). Based on the methodology, a state of the art software and computer framework has been developed for automating the design process, optimising integrated designs through rapid product modelling and analysis, performing systems simulation and capturing a knowledge base for devices, products and systems. This paper focuses on aspects of the computer framework based TOPDO technique that presents the design process as a total systematic framework.

Fuzzy Logic Based Built Environment Impact Assessment for Urban Regeneration Simulation

Integration and adaptation of artificial intelligent designs with fuzzy inference techniques is an active area of research that can be used to meet the challenges of regeneration processes. Urban regeneration activities in built environment are complex and require a close collaboration between designers and planners in order to achieve a design plan that is environmentally robust and sustainable. Regeneration teams’ inability to manually analyze complex maps for various regeneration choices induces human errors in the regeneration process. This often results in a prolonged impact on the economic, social and environmental wellbeing and sustainability of the region. This paper, presents the development of an urban regeneration fuzzy inference system (FIS) aimed at tackling the issue of regeneration simulation in built environment through the measurement of impact of certain socioeconomic parameters to the regeneration plan. The impact assessment logic is embedded in the form of an expertly guided rule-base of an FIS. The impact is calculated using the four core principles of urban smart growth (crime, accessibility, employment and health), with respect to a measure of Euclidean intra-regional distance based accessibility function between the regeneration area(s) and the surrounding built environment neighborhood. The FIS evaluates the suitability of various regeneration sub-areas in terms of the aforementioned four principles affecting the concept of a walk-able, sustainable and eco-friendly neighborhood.

Securing transport systems and infrastructure against terrorism using ITS

We categorise the intelligent transport system subsystems, which help in the protection of transport infrastructure and systems against transport terrorism. Intelligent transport systems (ITS) are a range of information communication, control and electronic technologies which when incorporated into the transportation system and infrastructure can enable the monitoring and management of transport related terrorism. Although ITS subsystems are primarily used for transport safety purposes (such as in passenger data delivery, traffic control and monitoring), their inherent proactiveness and quick response capability make them a possibility for use in securing systems and infrastructure.

Assistive technologies in public transport: meeting the needs of elderly and disabled passengers

This work presents the investigation of the functional specification and content development of in vehicle systems for road public passenger vehicles for elderly and disabled people. User requirement analysis is also proposed in this paper. User requirement analysis is vital in the design of public passenger services. Elderly and disabled passengers should not be treated as a homogenous group. They have different need and wants and their lifestyle is varied. As such, analysing their needs is crucial in order for public transport services to be functional and practical to them. The investigation concludes by stating that vehicle systems must be robust and forgiving especially in meeting the needs of elderly and disabled people. This research focuses on the development of a framework to assist the manufacturers in identifying and specifying inclusive designs for elderly and disabled passengers. As such the need for the methodology presented in this paper is vital in order to meet the demands of the elderly and disabled travellers.

Performance indicators for urban transport development in Nigeria

Developing countries are experiencing simultaneous growth of population, income and private vehicle ownership, which significantly affects urban transport environment and poses challenges to policymakers and urban transport professionals. Experience shows that the performance of urban transport service delivery in many developing countries is low; policy makers have incomplete information to make decisions and managers and professionals rarely have a clear picture of their operational performance, best practices elsewhere or the desired level of their service provision, which is the case of urban transport services in Nigeria. Urban transport in Nigeria is largely an unregulated market and inadequate both in quality and quantitative terms. Urban transport technology in use in Nigeria is a combination of Para-transit modes, consisting of shared taxis, minibuses, motorcycles and tricycles. Only in the cities of Lagos and Abuja are conventional buses in use, but even in both cities the use of Paratransit modes of transport is obviously dominant. As a matter of fact, Nigeria remains the only country in the world where densely populated cities with over 6 million people do not have an organized urban transport system based on a combination of conventional buses and rail. It will be therefore imperative to identify Key performance indicators (KPIs) that can be used to measure and improve the performance of urban transport services in Nigeria. This paper is focused on the identification of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for urban transport development in Nigeria. The KPIs that have been identified in this paper following the performance measurement framework can be used to monitor and evaluate urban transport performance in Nigeria and eventually guide the further development and modernization of urban transport system in Nigeria, in the sense that the KPIs will assist in identifying key areas for improvement and also serve as a guide for transport policy makers in making decisions. The KPIs presented in this paper have been categorized into Safety, Security, Environmental pollution, Financial perspective, Traffic management and Customer satisfaction.

Intelligent Remote Speed Control of Foresight Trucks with Driver Interface

This paper was presented at SAE 2002 World Congress & Exhibition, March 2002, Detroit, MI, USA, Session: Foresight Vehicle Technology - ITS Technology/Design Technology (Part E&F).

A Big Data Architecture for Traffic Forecasting Using Multi-Source Information

An important strand of predictive analytics for transport related applications is traffic forecasting. Accurate approximations of the state of transport networks in short, medium or long-term future horizons can be used for supporting traveller information, or traffic management systems. Traffic forecasting has been the focus of many researchers over the last two decades. Most of the existing works, focus on single point, corridor, or intersection based predictions with limited efforts to solutions that cover large metropolitan areas. In this work, an open big-data architecture for road traffic prediction in large metropolitan areas is proposed. The functional characteristics of the architecture, that allows processing of data from various sources, such as urban and inter-urban traffic data streams and social media, is investigated. Furthermore, its conceptual design using state-of-the-art computing technologies is realised.

Performance Indicators for Rail Transport System in Nigeria.

Rail transport has and continues to play a key role in the movement of goods and passengers in many countries around the world including Nigeria. However, while rail transport continues to enjoy relative importance in terms of investment, growth and contribution to the national economy in several countries, it has suffered neglect and relegation in Nigeria, resulting in a decline in its modal share contribution. Particularly, in the last decades following independence, not much has been achieved in terms of structural transformation of the Nigerian Railways. However there are new developments and investment on rail and some measures are being put in place to revive the Nigerian rail transport system. Old and unused railways are being modernised, rehabilitated, commissioned and brought into service. Therefore, it is vitally important to understand and analyse the performance criteria that can be applied in measuring and managing the Nigerian rail sub-sector. Currently this measurement criteria has not being established. The focus of this paper is on identifying Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the Nigerian rail sub-sector. The KPIs that have been identified in this paper following the performance measurement framework, can be used to measure the performance of the rail subsector and eventually guide the further development of rail transport in Nigeria, in the sense that the KPIs will assist in identifying key areas for improvement in the sector and also serve as a guide for transport policy makers in making decisions. The KPIs presented in this paper have been categorised into: Safety; Security; Environmental pollution; Internal Business perspective; Financial perspective; Intermodal perspective; Innovation and Learning perspective and Customer Satisfaction.

New development on integrated intelligent speed adaptation system

We start with an overview of speed impact on road transport. We discuss present speeds and speed management measures on road. A new integrated ISA system is presented in this paper. The system involves GPS/DGPS (Global Positioning System/differential GPS) based location and navigation, DSRC (dedicated short-range communications) beacon, vehicle wireless communication, traffic and travel information (TTI), and in-vehicle speed limiter. Such ISA system could externally, automatically and dynamically adapt vehicle speeds in changeable conditions, like incidents and weather conditions and in place and time related critical conditions. The results of system modelling and field trials are also shown.